Bill Mittlefehldt: It’s a requirement
at Anoka High School [that] before you graduate you have to do 10 hours
of service. We’re the only school in the district that has that
requirement. Service can be simple—shovel somebody’s walk
after a blizzard. See a problem and generate the solution. We move it
up the cognitive and affective continuum through the four years to be
something where they’re applying their skills and knowledge to understand
problems and then actually work on solutions. It grows over the four years
to become more powerful and autonomous. Service learning varies in complexity.
Some of the ninth-graders who come in and are ready to do service will
often do what they’re told, either through their faith community,
their parents, civic groups, whatever. They go to a site, they do some
service that’s outside of the school, and hopefully they have a
learning experience about serving something larger than themselves. We’re
trying to use this to grow their characters to understand there’s
something bigger at stake, basically the American republic. Over the four
years in our high school program, we get them to involve themselves in
more and more challenging venues of service. A couple of these kids have
already presented at the state level and some of the people who have presented
at the state level will go on next year and maybe do lobbying in Washington,
D.C. Our kids have presented at the U.N. in New York, and they’ve
presented before the House Budget Committee in Congress.

Ninth Grade: We begin in ninth grade with
the government class. The kids study the Federal government and the state
government and understand that they are responsible for adding to the
quality of life in their community. That’s pretty much a standard
government class but the kids are engaged in a project called an MMP,
Minnesota Public Policy Project, where they have to analyze a public issue
and make a presentation in their classes. That kind of sets the groundwork
to apply knowledge and understanding and demonstrate skills. In ninth
grade, kids begin the process that includes a little service. Generally,
they end up doing things through their faith community, through organizations
that they belong to, or specific government or civic activities that the
teacher asks them to attend. They get credit, just by becoming a more
informed citizen.

10th Grade: In 10th grade, the kids get into
U.S. government. That’s a required course. Again, they study the
whole panoply of U.S. history, and there are research projects. A number
of our kids participate in what’s called the History Day National
competition and we’ve done very well over the last years.

11th Grade: In 11th grade, they go into the
emergence of modern global societies--basically the world since 1900.
Those kids who start taking initiative in their 11th grade year end up
doing gangbuster projects in their senior year. This year, we’ve
had a number of teams who have worked with the Minnesota state legislature.
They get service credit for that, but it’s also related to this
four-year sequence of learning activities that generally grabs the kids
wherever they are and challenges them to take their skills and their applications
up another notch. 11th-graders begin to take initiative, and now, as their
adolescent identity is getting stronger, they realize that they are the
center of some action and initiative. They have some courage and creativity
to share. Some of the juniors are taking hold and saying, “This
is my community. This is my river. This is my land. I am going to make
a difference.” It’s very powerful. It’s more than just
doing what you’re asked to serve your community. It’s assuming
some responsibility to initiate part of the solution to some of your persistent
community problems.

12th Grade: In 12th grade, they take both
a required economics class and a required law class. It’s usually
in the 11th- and 12-grade classes that the teachers involve them in projects
where the students have to take some initiative and demonstrate their
civic competencies. When they get into it, they enjoy it because it displays
their leadership and their creativity.

The kids who are doing service in 11th and 12th grade are often doing
it in association with projects where they feel they’re making a
contribution. That’s what we’re after, and that’s what
I think Jefferson and Franklin had in mind. In the American republic,
it says you need a new kind of citizen, which the world hadn’t seen
much of by 1776. You need a citizen who can bridge the differences and
come together with a sense for a shared hope and a common ground. American
kids really need that. But it takes four years to change that psyche from
the inherent immaturity of a ninth-grader to the 12th-graders who are
ready to be global citizens and assume their responsibility for fixing
the system if it’s broken.

Our school board and our school district have a strong emphasis on character
development. We specifically feel that the critical importance of that
is to stop and wait for the kids to initiate [their plan]. This goes across
all ability levels, too, from your most gifted kids down to kids who have
very special learning needs. We wait until they respond, and then we try
and hook them up with learning resources in the community. That’s
where we see the growth of autonomous learning. We think in order to monitor
character development, you have to hold the kids responsible and measure
their increments of success. Service learning is a key factor in character
development.